Kurdish Militants Attack Turkish Security Outposts, 7 Killed

FILE - Turkish police officers carry the coffin of Turkish police special operations officer Sahin Polat Aydin, one of the four officers killed in a landmine attack attributed to PKK militants in Silopi, southeastern Turkey, during a ceremony in Ankara, Aug. 11, 2015.

Kurdish militants launched attacks on military outposts in eastern Turkey overnight and seven of their fighters were killed in ensuing clashes with security forces, the Turkish armed forces said on Thursday.

The attacks are the latest in a recent surge of violence between Turkish security forces and the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) militant group which has undermined a near three-year-old peace process.

In the southeastern town of Silopi, near the borders with Iraq and Syria, PKK fighters opened fire with rifles and rocket-propelled grenades on a military base, triggering a firefight in which four militants were killed, the general staff of Turkey's armed forces said in a statement.

The PKK also launched similar simultaneous attacks on Wednesday evening on a military base and police station in the town of Diyadin in Agri province, near the Iranian border, and three militants were killed in the subsequent clash, it said.

The ANF news agency, which is close to the PKK, said Turkish special forces had opened fire on nearby buildings after the Diyadin attack and that two youths aged 15 and 16 who worked in a nearby bakery were among the three people killed. The account could not immediately be verified.

The PKK, designated a terrorist group by Turkey, the United States and the European Union, took up arms against the Turkish state in 1984 and more than 40,000 people have been killed in the conflict.

Ankara launched a peace process with jailed PKK leader Abdullah Ocalan in 2012 and a ceasefire declared by him in 2013 had largely held until hostilities resumed last month